PM’s nephew leading ‘happy life’ in US has ‘no intention of going back to Singapore’ to face contempt of court charges

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Li Shengwu, the nephew of Singapore’s prime minister, who will face contempt of court proceedings for comments he made suggesting the city state’s courts were not independent, said on Saturday he would not be returning to Singapore.

The office of Singapore’s attorney general said on Friday it will seek to begin contempt of court proceedings against Li, a US-based academic, over Facebook posts he made on July 15. The legal move is the latest twist in a family feud over the fate of late Singapore founding father Lee Kwan Yew’s house that gripped the nation last month.

I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the US

Li Shengwu

In his post, Li, nephew of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and a son of Lee’s brother, Lee Hsien Yang, described the Singapore government as “litigious” and the courts as “pliant”.

Li, 32, is currently a junior fellow at Harvard University said he expected to commence an associate professor position with the university in autumn 2018.

He said he would defend himself through legal representation in Singapore but would not be returning to the country.

“I have no intention of going back to Singapore. I have a happy life and a fulfilling job in the US,” he said.

In a statement on Friday, the attorney general’s chambers said it had previously instructed Li to remove the post and issue a letter of apology acknowledging that his comments about the judiciary were baseless.

It said Li had failed to meet those requirements by the stipulated deadline of 0900 GMT on Friday, which had been pushed back from July 28 at Li’s request.

“As Mr Li has failed to purge the contempt and to apologise by the extended deadline, an application for leave to commence committal proceedings for contempt against him will today be filed in the High Court,” the statement said.

Earlier on Friday, Li said on Facebook he had amended his original July 15 post to clarify any misunderstandings. However, he said he did not believe the post was in contempt of court.

Li’s July 15 post was shared on a privacy setting that allows content to only be viewed by his Facebook friends. He said on Friday the intent of that post was to convey the “international media were restricted in their ability to report” on a recent feud between Prime Minister Lee and his siblings “due to the litigious nature” of the government.

“It is not my intent to attack the Singapore judiciary or to undermine public confidence in the administration of justice,” he said.

The public spat between the Lee siblings, children of Lee Kuan Yew, flared up in June over the future of the family home and raised questions about governance in the city state.

Lee Hsien Yang and sister Lee Wei Ling accused their elder brother of abusing his powers, prompting the prime minister to call an extraordinary special sitting of parliament in July to “clear the air” over an issue that some people say has tarnished Singapore’s image.